Today’s generation is much different from the last generation. From the movies, comic books (more like online comics and mangs), and video games the world is a much different place…or is it? I just finished reading The Lexus and the Olive Tree, Thomas Friedman, and it brought a lot of questions to my mind. Is today’s world truely much different at least in the inside from the end of the Versialle age? Also, what is the future of the United States in the world? Will the US be able to mantain it’s hold on the world through it’s military and influence or will it fall to the UK, Russia, China, Japan, or any other similar country to lead the world? Currently, the US is the main super power in the world, not to say that the other countries like the UK, Russia, China, Japan, Korea, and others aren’t influencial but as of right now, and since the end of the cold war the US has led the world in advancing globilization.

It’s almost frightening and comforting to know that most people in the world are connected to each other. So that a relative in Russia can call, email, IM, or mail their family back in the US. Everyone has their own cellphone, computers, and everyone’s now online. However, there’s a lot of what if’s. Since we’re so connected like Friedman mentioned in his book, if one economy crashes then the whole world’s economy suffers even just a bit. So there’s isn’t any more “walls” to hide behind now, and it’s just a matter of time before so called “communist” countries and dictatorships fall. My question, is how and when? For instance, Iran is ruled by a theocracy yet they are developing nuclear weapons and are a major threat to the West. So when their people finally get tired of being ruled by Islamic extremists and throw out the government or when another Iraq war happens, what would be the result?

No one has used nukes since the end of World War 2…but what if these countries whose leaders only mantain control by not allowing their people to learn about the outside world end up failing their objective? What would a dictator do when surrounded in a corner? Will he act like a wild animal and lash out at others? Will we have another World War? What would happen?

Then, there’s the issue of Russia whose economy has generally failed itself since the collaspe of the Soviet Union. How are they going to recover? There’s so much corruption going on that there’s a reason why the Middle East has so many AK-47s and rocket launchers. How do you revitalize a country that first, is huge. It stradles two different continents and has a variety of cultures and people. Then, there’s the rememberance of the old way, the communist way, and well capatalists still have a long way to go to converting the economy.

Part 2 will be about China, and the rest of South Asia as well as a more in depth opinion on the Middle East.